bush's nominees and two of president obama's nominees. so i ask consent to put in the record this summary of president obama's nominations, along with an article from "the washington post" that points out that president obama's nominees have been confirmed more rapidly than those of the last three presidents in his first term. i ask consent to put that in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: thank you, mr. president. now, to be more specific about the -- about these matters, let's take circuit court judicial confirmations in president obama's first term. according to our research, the average time for president obama's nominees was 240 days. that's faster than president george w. bush, 277 days from nomination to confirmation. so circuit court judicial confirmations, which are usually the subject of great interest around here, president obama treated better than president george w. bush. slightly better. first-term district court nominees -- the obama average time, 221 days, is slower than george w. bush, 1